I'm back watching more Gerry Anderson programing with the first disc of Joe 90. I watched this show when it was new in 1968 but I didn't have that good an opinion of it. Now that I watched the first 8 episodes I still don't have that good an opinion of it.
The 1st episode is the origin story. Joe is a 9 year old boy that his scientist dad uses in his experiments. He has a good invention but it has some stupid limitations. The machine on the left is used for extracting, recording, storing and transferring knowledge and experience from one person to another. To get the that out of someone all they have to do is point a small antenna at the person, and zap, all the knowledge and experience are on tape in that machine.
To get them into Joe, he's the one the machine's chair was designed for, they have to sit him in the chair and spin that big ball like thing around him. Once the knowledge and experience are into his head they only stay there while he has some electrodes attached to his temples. In the field Joe has to wear some special glasses with built in electrodes. In one episode Joe has to play the piano like someone and after scanning that guy Joe can tickle the ivories just like him.
Joe and his father live in that nice little thatched cottage. The thatch is made from human hair. Under the house they have the secret lab that houses the BIG RAT (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer) machine. A friend of Joe's dad works at the World Intelligence Network and he gets dad to send Joe off on missions for the agency.
In each episode Joe is sent off with the knowledge and experience of someone else. Above Joe hides in a crate of small arms so he can be smuggled into the bad guy's storage area. Then he can signal where it is so WIN can come and arrest everyone. I suppose that homing beacons are pretty pricey. For a 9 year old Joe seems more than capable of handling any situation, even murder. In that same episode Joe has a gun battle with the arms dealer and blows up some other guy with a grenade. The missions aren't always quite as dangerous, in one episode Joe gets the memories of a surgeon and preforms a special operation, in another Joe helps break up his dad and his spy girlfriend's relationship.
Joe's dad has a goofy looking flying car, the show is set in 2012 or 2013, so you've got to expect that sort of thing. Not all the vehicles are that goofy, some are OK, but some are poor. Sets and scenery is pretty good. Some of the buildings are interesting for their shapes. It's a well enough made show and the puppets are pretty good. Like the Captain Scarlett puppets the Joe 90 puppets have more human proportions.
In The Unorthodox Shepherd episode the production uses an actual church to film in. They even film the puppets on location. It's all very weird. Kind of like the show. I wish I found the thing more entertaining and not just because I bought the set. It didn't get great ratings when it came out and I can see why. I'm still liking Supercar the best. Only 3 more discs to watch.
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